We squeezed through a crowd of 300 enthusiastic fans on the Saks Fifth Avenue shoe floor in NYC to chat with pop queen Kylie Minogue. She was there to celebrate the debut of her new retrospective book, Kylie Fashion.

The tome was put together as a way to commemorate and celebrate Minogue's 25 years in the music business. It documents hundreds of rare and unseen photos, sketches, and paparazzi shots of the singer's eclectic fashion history. "You could go on tour easier than doing a book, it is an extraordinary amount of work," Minogue revealed about the editing process. "The hardest part is deciding what to leave out. It is like your wardrobe or your handbag—as big as it is you want to put more in."

Kylie Fashion got its fashion industry stamp of approval with an introduction written by Jean Paul Gaultier and commentary from the likes of Domenico Dolce, Stefano Gabbana, and Karl Lagerfeld. The pages are so colorful and full of style that it is easy to forget it is about just one woman. "My style is eclectic, I'm such a chameleon," Minogue told us. "It is a real pleasure to go around and wear different designers and styles. I get an extra kick if I wear an up and coming designer. It is a really nice feeling to know that it is helping get them out there."

Minogue recounted how she began her relationships with industry legends; stories included clubbing in Paris as a 22 year old in Jean Paul Gaultier hot pants to being fitted by Azzedine Alaïa himself in his couture studio. She has always had a strong connection with clothes, and learned how to make them at a young age. "When I was younger, my grandma taught me how to cut patterns and sew," she revealed. "So if someone is doing a fitting on me, I can converse with them and know what needs to be done." As far as passing her wisdom along to aspiring pop stars Minogue recounts, "There's no shortcut to learning a craft, you just have to put the years in."

Super fans can see her clothes up close at the Performing Arts Museum in Melbourne, Australia, where Minogue has donated all her iconic fashion pieces and costumes. "If I hit hard times, I'm going to have nothing to sell!" the singer joked. "It is an amazing archive—they preserve everything and no one even looks at them without white gloves." Minogue's relationship with fashion clearly runs deep in her veins and into each of the garments featured in the book. "I look back at a piece and think, 'I wore that for 77 shows around the world with all the pain, tears, blood, joy, and all sorts of stories and emotions along with it.'"